Suicide Bombing in Afghanistan Targets Taliban Heartland

A suicide bombing outside a bank in southern Afghanistan on Thursday killedat least 20 people, including several members of the Taliban, according to hospital staff, in a bloody reminder of the terrorist threats that have persisted in the country since the U.S.-led war ended.

The attack occurred about 8:30 a.m., when a bomber detonated explosives in front of a branch of the New Kabul Bank in Kandahar City, the capital of Kandahar Province, according to Taliban officials. The blast appeared to have targeted Taliban members who had gathered at the bank to collect their salaries, witnesses and hospital staff said.

About 50 others were injured, according to a doctor and a nurse at Mirwais Regional Hospital in Kandahar City who insisted on anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the news media.

Taliban officials, disputing that higher death toll, said that three people had been killed and a dozen others injured in the blast.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack. Taliban officials at the Ministry of Interior said their initial investigations suggested that the Islamic State affiliate in the region — the Islamic State-Khorasan, or ISIS-K — had been behind the blast.

The government “condemns this attack and assures people that the perpetrators of this attack will be identified, arrested and handed over to judicial centers as soon as possible,” according to a statement from the ministry that was published on X.